Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Black Lives Matter protest in Philadelphia, USA reimagined by Eric Boivin.

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest

Recorded by Michael McDermott.

"It was a protest in Philadelphia at City Hall https://goo.gl/maps/bKAUS8VDgk92 on May 1, 2015. This protest was a specific response to the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody a few weeks earlier. It was part of a wider moment and response to deaths of black people at the hands of police through out 2015-16 under the banner of “Black Lives Matter"."

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest

Recorded by Michael O'Connor.

21.01.17 Women's March LA - crowd cheering prompted by multiple car horns honking their support.

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest

LA women's march reimagined by Mind.Divided.

"Loud and in your face, just like any protest should be.

Mildly inspired by Atari Teenage Riot, who have drawn a lot of their energy from political protests in the past."

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest

Reimagined by Astrid Hald.

"Based on the horrific past of Estadio Nacional, I wanted to create a soundscape build around altered voices, sounding as if they could be by group of hooligans or the lost voices of those killed under the regime of Pinochet. One of the predominant edits was to stretch the original recordings and add effects on to the voices."

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest

Recorded by Lezak Shallat.

"The second is from the National Stadium in Santiago, Chile, where thousands of people were detained and hundreds tortured and beaten (and killed) in the months following the 1973 military coup against Salvador Allende. The tape records a commemoration/protest inside the stadium, in a section that has been left exactly as it was since it was used as a detention center.

See more details here​: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/sports/soccer/in-chiles-national-stadium-dark-past-shadows-copa-america-matches.html?_r=1

​and here: http://www.estadionacionalmemorianacional.cl​

​The tape was made on September 11, 2014, on the 43nd anniversary of the coup, which is a day that people come to the stadium in droves to visit this section of the stadium and renew their demands for truth and justice, and an end to impunity. Thousands of people were filing through the memorial, singing protest songs and chanting."

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest

Recorded by Protyasha Pandey.

"These are the recordings from a demonstration - the occasion is the declaration of the Delhi municipal elections - and its win by the BJP being celebrated in the urban village of Shahpur Jat. There is the sound of "Nagada" drums, "dhol" drums, "khadtal" cymbals, bells, whistling, man speaking over a loudspeaker, and several people chanting, "Modi" (BJP being Modi's party)"

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest

Pro-Modi rally reimagined by Odette Museleon.

"After reading articles about Mr Modi and about this area of Delhi, I thought to create a totally imaginary Indian street scene, which combined some sounds associated with Indian cities and the use of the exuberant and joyful soundfile, to create a pro Modi demonstration passing through. I sourced other field recordings via creative commons including birds, crows, a flute seller, Delhi and Calcuttan street traffic, and the sound of the Kali Bells from a temple. On researching Mr Modi, I found that he had two favourite films, one is Guide (1965) and the other is Jai Chittor (1961). I sourced a track from this film – “O pawan veg se udanewale ghode - Lata - Jai Chitod” (https://youtu.be/FOD6wEbl_YI ) from an Indian Bollywood movie soundtrack site and used it as if playing from one of the small shops, that I imagined I was standing outside of. "

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest

Chilean student protest reimagined by Lezak Shallat.

"Stone-throwing students battling police at the entrance to the Isla Teja campus of the Universidad Austral in Valdivia in May 2017. In the field recording by Mark Baldwin, you can hear the percussive "ping" of projectiles hitting the armored police vehicles. Additional police arrive and prepare to respond with tear gas and water cannons. In this reimagining, a reporter at the scene from Radio Bio-Bio describes the confrontation and a student explains the protesters' demands for a university system that is free, public, and high-quality.

The music woven into the piece is the National Anthem of Terror, performed by the Free, Public, and Quality Orchestra of Catholic University students.

The words to this parody of the Chilean national anthem are:

Pure Chile, you country of terror

where segregation reigns.

Your commercialized sons,

separated by repression,

behold the majestic robbery of your mountains,

forests, and oceans.

May your unperturbed rich be the crown

of the arts, industry, and law.

Sweet money

in exchange for the votes

with which Chile sold off its future.

May the shouts of all liberate us

from granting asylum to the oppressor.

And marching with the people's voice,

make the tyrant tremble

make the tyrant tremble

make the tyrant tremble"

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest

Recorded by Mark Wilden in Valdivia, Chile.

"Here's a sound from this week's student protest in Valdivia, southern Chile. It's a port and university town just inland from the Pacific coast. We were trying to get onto the university campus to visit the botanic gardens, but the road was blocked off by police; on taking a detour we saw from 100-200m away a disorganised crowd of students, some with faces covered, throwing occasional rocks at police vehicles which seemed to be retreating. Soon afterwards, police reinforcements came and were bombarded with more rocks; as I was recording the police fired a water cannon at the students. It would have felt rather exposed to get the Zoom recorder so this was recorded from some distance on the iPhone microphone, which isn't ideal, but you can nevertheless hear the pings of rocks hitting the armoured car. After the recording finished the police fired gas canisters at the protesters, some of which were kicked back, and at that point we left before it escalated further. I discovered later that one student was "gravely injured" on being hit by a CS gas canister. Apparently there was a national day of protest against education reform on the next day (I think the protests were in favour of free education), at which 100+ arrests were made, including bystanders with no connection to the protests."

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest